The 3-1 win saw Services close within a win of Waratahs and top spot with only a couple of games remaining.

Both sides were missing key cogs, with coach Kimmy McLean (Services) and Katrina Rekunow (Waratahs) away in Townsville playing for NSW Country at the Australian Country Championships.

Waratahs were also without Abigail Doolan, which left a big hole in their midfield.

Alison Hofman gave them the early advantage, but Services erased that with three unanswered goals.

“It was a satisfying win,” captain Kate Perrett said.

“In the previous round we’d been a little flat in our performance but in the current round we seem to have picked up and really started to play constructive hockey and use our short passing game.”

Fast and skillful, she said Waratahs certainly didn’t make it easy for them.

“We went out with a plan in mind of how we wanted to play the game,” Perrett said.

“We didn’t execute as well as we would have liked initially, as the game went on we executed better.”

She said across the park everyone stood up, but did single out keeper Michelle Collins.

Waratahs coach Graeme McKenzie felt his side were a bit sluggish.

“I just think they (Services) seemed a little more focused and committed on the day,” he said.

In saying that, he said, they still had enough opportunities to do better than 3-1.

Flames also got up 3-1 over Tudor Wests, while Olympians defeated South United 6-3 to boost their hopes of playing finals.

“It was good to get that win,” Olympians coach Andrew Farmilo said, with the points seeing them leapfrog Souths into fourth.

“It was a funny sort of a game,” Farmilo said.

“The first half we didn’t even look like we were interested. There was no hunger for the ball.”

Souths pounced on that and slotted the first two goals.

But Olympians fought back and after a few words from Farmilo at half-time came out a different side in the second half.

“It was a really good second half,” he said.

The crux of his message at half-time was picking up their intensity. He felt there were also a couple of little tweaks they could make.

“Just making the simple passes and moving it on from there. Not trying to be too expansive,” he said.

That seemed to work with the attack flowing a lot better in the second half.

After jumping out to a 5-2 lead, Farmilo said he could sense a bit of awkwardness when Souths got back to 5-3, but they scored again not long after to making things a bit more comfortable.

He said Gabby Hathway was really good while Em Chaffey worked hard. Olivia Climpson and Billie Mitchell also had big games. 

TABLE: Waratahs 27, Services 25, Flames 22, Olympians 13, Souths 12, Tudors 7.